Welcome to the International Forum of Meteorological Societies

What's New

• IFMS Global Meeting Two
  3-4 November 2011
  Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
  
  
  
• IFMS Global Meeting One (Atlanta, Georgia, USA -- January 18-19, 2010)
  BAMS Summary Article (PDF)
  GM1 Agenda (PDF)
  GM1 Photos of Participants
  GM1 Presentations

About the IFMS

Leaders of nineteen of the world’s regional and national meteorological societies recently met and unanimously agreed to form a first-ever International Forum of Meteorological Societies. The fundamental goal of the IFMS is very basic; it is to foster and encourage communication and exchange of knowledge, ideas and resources among the world’s more than sixty meteorological societies. Such exchanges occur today only on a bi-lateral basis or through the efforts of three regional meteorological societies: the African Meteorological Society, the European Meteorological Society (EMS), and the Latino American Federation of Meteorological Societies (FLISMET). The IFMS is to be quite distinct from the World Meteorological Organization. Whereas the WMO is an agency of the United Nations that deals with observations, standards, data exchange and technology transfer among its 188 member states and territories, the IFMS will focus on advancing the goals and objectives of the world’s professional and scientific societies. The IFMS is intended to be an informal mechanism that facilitates interactions among Societies and, as such, will not have any legal or official formalism.

IFMS Charter

Establishment of an International Forum of Meteorological Societies (IFMS) – as adopted 13 January 2009

Preamble.

The issues, challenges and solutions facing the meteorological societies around the world have many global commonalities.  Yet, there exists no global forum for them to readily share their experiences and identify opportunities; today’s inter-society interactions are primarily bilateral (apart from those among several regional societies).  A representative cross-section consisting of 20 of the world’s meteorological societies convened in a planning meeting held January 13, 2009, in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, to consider establishing an International Forum of Meteorological Societies that would address issues of common concern.  One mechanism for achieving the Forum’s goals would be a series of occasional meetings of representatives of the world’s national and regional meteorological societies. Those participating in the planning meeting indicated broad and enthusiastic support for the Forum concept.

The Motion.

It is adopted that:

• an International Forum of Meteorological Societies (hereafter referred to as the ‘Forum’) be established for the broad purpose of facilitating the exchange of knowledge, experience and information among the world’s national and regional meteorological societies;
  
  
• the terms of reference of the Forum will be drafted by a Steering Committee, for approval at the first meeting of the Forum, which will provide guidance and direction for the occasional meetings of the member societies and other communications mechanisms (for example, establishing a Forum website);
  
  
• the first meeting of the Forum will be held in 2010 in conjunction with the 90th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (17-21 January 2010, in Atlanta, Georgia); 

• the Forum will not have official or legal status; it will function primarily to facilitate communication among the member societies, and encourage follow-through on action items identified by the member societies; and

membership in the Forum will be voluntary and open to all national and regional meteorological and closely related professional/scientific societies.

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